Coat Colors and Patterns

Article: Biology » Coat Colors and Patterns

Nomenclature of Colors & Patterns

Colors

Brown Chesapeake Bay Retriever

Dark chocolate Australian Kelpie

Brown: and its variants, including mahogany, mid-tone brown, gray-brown, blackish brown; the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, whose color "must be as nearly that of its working surroundings as possible", also uses the terms sedge and deadgrass. Also includes liver or chocolate, a dark brown.

Gold: Rich reddish-yellow, as in a Golden Retriever, and its variants, including yellow-gold, lion-colored, fawn, apricot, wheaten (pale yellow or fawn, like the color of ripe wheat), tawny, straw, yellow-red, mustard, sandy, honey.

Yellow mixed-breed dog

Yellow Labrador Retriever

Yellow: Yellowish-gold tan, as in a yellow Labrador Retriever—and its variants, including blond and lemon. Lemon is a very pale yellow or wheaten color which is not present at birth (the puppies are born white) but gradually becomes apparent, usually during the first six months of life.

Cream French Bulldog

Cream: Sometimes it's hard to define the line between pale yellow and cream. Depending on the breed and individual, cream ranges from white through ivory and blond, often occurring with or beneath lemon, yellow, and sable.

Black Newfoundland

Black Labrador Retriever

Black: Usually pure black but sometimes grizzled, particularly as dogs age and develop white hairs, usually around the muzzle.

Kerry Blue Terrier

Blue: Not the rainbow's blue but rather a dark metallic gray, often as a blue merle or speckled (with black). Kerry Blue Terriers, Australian Silky Terriers, Australian Shepherds, Bearded Collies, Great Danes, and Neapolitan Mastiffs are among many breeds that come in blue.

White: Such a light cream that it is seen and described as pure white, making them distinct from albino dogs. A white dog, as opposed to an albino one, has dark pigment around the eye rims and nose, often coupled with dark-colored eyes. There is often some coat identifiable as cream between the dog's shoulder blades.

Patterns

Liver and tan Australian Kelpie

Black and Tan Coonhound

Black and tan, liver and tan, blue and tan: Coat has both colors but in clearly defined and separated areas, usually with the darker color on most of the body and tan (reddish variants) underneath and in highlights such as the eyebrows. Black and brindle and liver and brindle, in which the same pattern is evident with brindling in place of tan, are also possible, but less common.

Black and White Border Collie

Blenheim (Red-brown and white) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Bicolor (also called Two-color, Irish spotted, Flashy, Patched, Tuxedo) Any color or pattern coupled with white spotting. This can range anywhere from white toes and tail tip to a mostly-white dog with color around the base of the ears and tail. Some breeds have special names for the color combinations; for example, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel uses Blenheim for reddish brown (chestnut) and white. Irish Spotted or flashy pattern is symmetrical and includes a white chest, white band around the neck, white belly, and white feet or "boots." This pattern is commonly seen in herding dogs, and Boxers, among others.

Black tricolor Entlebucher Mountain Dog

Tricolor Beagle

Tricolor: Three clearly defined colors, usually either black, liver, or blue on the dog's upper parts, white underneath, with a tan border between and tan highlights; for example, the Smooth Collie, the Rough Collie, the Papillon,or the Sheltie. Tricolor can also refer to a dog whose coat is patched, usually two colors (such as black and tan) on a white background.

Blue merle Australian Shepherd

Red merle Catahoula Leopard Dogs

Merle: Marbled coat with darker patches and spots of the specified color. Merle is referred to as "Dapple" with Dachshunds.

Tuxedo mixed-breed dog

Red tuxedo mixed breed

Tuxedo: Solid (usually black) with a white patch (shirt front) on the chest and chin, and white on some or all of the feet (spats.) Common coloration in Labrador mixes that may stem from the St. John's Water Dog ancestral breed.

Harlequin Great Dane

Harlequin: "ripped" splotches of black on white. Only the Great Dane exhibits this coat pattern.

Spotted Dalmatian

Spotted: Most often dark pigmented spots on a light background. The spotting on dalmatians is unique as it involves mutations in at least three different spotting genes.

Red-speckled Australian Cattle Dog

Liver-ticked German Shorthaired Pointer

Flecked, ticked, speckled: also called belton in English Setters

Darker brindle and white Boston Terrier

Medium brindle Galgo Español

Brindle: A mixture of black with brown, tan, or gold; usually in a "tiger stripe" pattern.

Airedale Terrier with large black saddle

Saddle or blanket: A different color, usually darker, over the center of the back.

Dark orange sable Pomeranian

Lighter sable Shetland Sheepdogs

Sable: Black-tipped hairs; the background colour can be gold to yellow, silver, gray, or tan. The darkness of the coat depends on how much of each hair is black versus the lighter color.